Breath of Fire III: A Novelization

A/N: I'm trying to make this as true to the game and script as possible, but I have changed a few things to try and make it flow a little better. Feedback would be great. Thanks.

Breath of Fire III: A Novelization

Prologue

The First Cycle

When the Dragon Family was at the peak of its power,

A goddess of desire appeared. The goddess, Tyr, granted wishes.

The Dragons fought each other for her power.

Tyr encouraged the fighting and watched the war between the Dragons escalate.

When the world was at the brink of destruction

A warrior stepped forward.

The Warrior battled Tyr with his seven companions

And locked her up using six keys.

These "Goddess Keys" were scattered throughout the world

And hidden away.

The Light Dragons balanced the power of the family and peace reigned.

The Second Cycle

It was like waking from a long dream... But now his father and sister

have disappeared and no one else recognizes him...

He dreamt of a horrific demon who ripped his heart and body apart...

But it remains just a dream.

Yet, the vision remains strong. Deep within the corners of his mind,

he hears it calling. A different world... A world of silence... A

world of darkness. He moves toward it, feeling both fear and

exhilaration. He succumbs and the darkness welcomes him.

"You are the one." The demon screeches. reaching deep within his own

mind he realizes that it is true. Then, at that moment, reality

washes away and the dream begins to take shape...

"Give yourself to God! Praise God…Pray to God! You must become God's strength…"

The Third Cycle

Dauna Mine

The sound of the mine cart echoed throughout the dark tunnel of the Dauna mine, its wheels screeching on the rather rickety track. This was queer, for the mines were not old at all, so the ragged state of the tracks had to be owed to the cheapness of the Dauna mining company. Such cheapness was to be expected though, as they employed many from all over the Yraal and Windia regions to help them make some quick zenny mining chrysm ore.

Other than the cheapness of the mine cart tracks, the mine was actually quite normal. There were many noises, such as pickaxes, drills, cranes, and the occasional cave-in, which combined with the screeching of the rickety track, would make any normal man wince. However, the men in these mines weren't any normal men, but mining men.

Two of these men happened to be the source of the screeching noise, riding a mine cart through the mines towards a particular area of interest. To say that these were ordinary men though, would be robbing them of their true description, just as if saying their destination was normal.

The two were actually not men at all, or not humans anyway, but a mole-man and a Forest clansmen, and their destination happened to be the giant fossil of a dragon.

"A dragon…?" inquired the mole-man with an air of uncertainty. "I don't know about this Gary…"

The two were surreptitiously pumping each side of the lever on their mine cart, quickly approaching their destination. While it was true that going to mine a giant dragon fossil was not what the two signed up for, the creature was dead anyway and had been for hundreds of years. Plus, there was a lot of chrysm to be had.

"C'mon Mogu…" replied Gary with a wolfish grin. "It's really high quality stuff."

The two turned a corner, the mine cart screeching in protest, and disappeared into a dark tunnel.

When magical beings die, their bodies slowly transform into the ore known as chrysm.

By the time the mine cart had stopped, the two miners were in front of an elevator. This would transport them deeper into the shaft to where the high quality stuff was. It was written on Mogu's rodent-like face that he wanted to get this over with quickly; after all, it's not every day that one sees a dragon, dead or alive. The two listened solemnly to the hum of the elevator approaching from below.

"The dragons tried to destroy the world…" Mogu stated, a bit of a quiver in his voice.

"Yep." Replied Gary matter-of-factly. "Fought a huge war…THE War…"

The hum of the elevator stopped as it finally reached the two miners, stopping with a resounding thud. The two looked onto the empty car, almost as if waiting for the other to get on first. Gary ended up going on first.

"I sure wouldn't want to meet a dragon." Mogu ominously mumbled, before hopping on as well.

"Yea, but they're extinct now." Gary reassured him. The elevator began its decent.

Even the legendary dragons, whose might shook the world, have in death become a source of energy in the form of chrysm.

The decent was rather uneventful, but the tension in the elevator car was so thick it was as if it could be cut with a dull knife. Mogu looked to his coworker, Gary. He looked quite funny, being an anthropomorphic wolf wearing blue overalls and brown work boots. However, it being dress code and Gary being a stickler for rules, stuck with the silly human clothes. Mogu on the other hand, chose clothing that suited his clan: a blue tunic, white pants, and a white bandana. Sure he may have gotten reprimanded, but the Dauna Mining company would never fire him. He was a mole!

As the elevator came to a resounding halt at the lowest level of the mine shaft, the car shook a little bit from the impact. Mogu smoothed his clothes over with his paws and stepped off the car with his fellow miner. This was no time to get the jitters. As the two started walking, Gary began to say something to try to calm his friend down.

"Well even the baddest beast…" He began.

"…dies in the end like everyone else." Finished Mogu.

No one knows how or why the mighty dragons became extinct.

As Mogu and Gary walked deeper into the mine, the small mole-man could not shake a feeling of dread that had slithered its way into his conscience, constricting his thoughts. All living things died and left behind chrysm, and dragons were no different. He resigned to take a vacation as soon as he had the opportunity.

As the two approached the giant fossil, they looked up in awe, each of their jaws dropping. It truly was a magnificent site to behold, keeping its shape completely that it had when it had died so many hundreds of years ago. It was huge and green, with huge gaping holes on the head where the eyes were at one point, and two huge horns jutting out from the back of its head. Overall, it was several hundred times larger than both miners, and looked like they could walk in through one of the many holes in its body. In fact, that's exactly where they were stationed.

The inside of the fossilized beast was actually no different than the rest of the mine. The company had already been here, setting up so as to make mining easier on the workers. There were planks to walk on and torches lit so that they could see, and right in the middle of the walkway was a large and brilliant piece of purple chrysm ore. Upon closer inspection, Mogu found that there was a dragon inside, much to his chagrin.

Not letting this minor setback get in the way of their job, Gary and Mogu began to set explosives onto the chrysm so as to break it up for easier mining. The dragon inside wouldn't be a problem at all, it being dead and everything.

"OK!" Exclaimed Mogu upon completion of his task. "Explosives are set!"

"What is this?" replied Gary, shrugging his shoulders. "An egg or something?"

"You see ones like this ever so often…" Mogu muttered, nodding in reply.

"Well I'll be." Chuckled Gary, astounded.

"C'mon, let's get to work already." The mole-man nagged, more than a little put off by the dragon egg. He had already taken cover, preparing for the explosion.

Gary put down his backpack, which was full of explosives, and began to trace a fuse back a ways to where he and his partner were taking cover. He lit the fuse and ducked, listening as the fire traced the string all the way to his pack, making an explosion of tiny fireballs. These fireballs lit the explosives attached to the egg, and blew the chrysm to pieces.

The two were still taking cover, wary of the shrapnel, when they heard a little yelp. It wasn't like the yelp of a person, but of some sort of creature. The two got up and turned – surely it couldn't be the dragon, but sure enough, it was standing there in the rubble of its newly destroyed chrysm egg, staring inquisitively at them. Though it was just a curious baby, there was nothing about it that was charming nor cute, from its sharp claws to its crimson eyes.

"What the??" Gary exclaimed. "It's still alive!"

"WHOA!" Mogu yelled, shaking down to his very core. His instincts immediately took over and he reeled back and struck the creature.

The dragon was not phased at all by such a weak hit, and opened its mouth. Out poured a searing hot stream of fire, torching any and all in its path, including Mogu and Gary. The dragon then walked over to their charred remains, the floor around them an inferno, and let out a little screech. It then left the chamber to begin it rampage through the Dauna Mine.

This is a tale dedicated to the dragons.

The little green whelp made its way through the mine rather vigorously as it was quite quick on its feet. Being trapped in chrysm for so many years had left the lizard with quite a lot of energy, so it was quite inclined to get around and explore its surroundings. The dragon was quite oblivious as to why most of the people in the mine were running for their lives upon seeing him, so it was quite surprised when it found itself face to face with a couple of workers who thought that they could take it on.

"Ha, I'm not afraid!" said one, a bald man, to the other, a man with long red hair.

"Let's get it!" said the man with long red hair.

The two rushed the dragon, the bald man with a steel pipe and the red-haired man with a pickaxe, but before the battle could start, the dragon shot forth a stream of fire from its mouth. The two screamed in agony for a couple of moments before the heat became too much, incinerating their clothing and equipment and charring their skin. In mere seconds all that remained of the two men were blackened skeletons, their bodies to be forever contorted and their mouths to be eternally agape, screaming in agony.

The small bipedal lizard continued on its path through the mine, passing by many miners who weren't nearly as brave as their dead comrades. Most hid in corners or ran away from him screaming. Still some didn't even notice and just continued to work; the chrysm wouldn't mine itself.

Upon emerging from the giant dragon fossil where it awakened, the dragon came upon a man in a hard hat. The two made eye contact immediately and the man stopped dead in his tracks, shaking from his hat all the way down to his brown work boots. It wasn't every day that one saw a dragon, and even if it was a baby, it still had sharp claws and hot breath…no to mention malevolent red eyes.

"Somebody help me!" the man screamed, running away with much celerity.

The dragon walked out onto the platform, its curiosity still not piqued. It was determined to explore the place as much as possible and hopefully meet some people that would finally be nice to it. It's not as if the creature was running around and killing people for the sake of killing them; everyone was attacking it. As the dragon walked out to the middle of the platform, it came face to face with a man from the Iron-Ogre clan. Behind the dragon was a man at some sort of control panel, and the two made eye contact. It was not hard to figure out that the two had a plan.

"What's this about a dragon hmm?" The ogre-man growled, cracking his knuckles. "Let's take it alive!"

The giant threw a punch that connected with the dragon's face. This was the first blow that actually hurt the dragon, as its thick scales protected it from a lot of damage. The ogre-man's fists, however, were about twice as large as the dragon's head, so pain was inevitable. The dragon screeched and reared back, about to blast the giant into oblivion, when a voice popped into its head.

"NO! DON'T!"

The dragon looked up to the giant dragon fossil and turned its head, looking for the source of the voice. This was all the opening that the miners needed, and the man at the control panel began punching in buttons after a nod from the ore-man. In a flash, a crane hand came from behind the dragon and hit the back of its head with a sickening thud, and then the creature fell prone to the ground.

A/N: Questions? Comments? Concerns? Criticisms? Please drop me a review, they would be much appreciated. Oh, and don't worry about hurting my feelings. I can take it!